Name : Ade Novira Aswani

NIM : 0304182152
Class : English Education Department-2
Semester : 6
Subject : Sociolinguistics (final test)

The answers of final test questions

1. I disagree to the theory, yet I agree that women and men generally speak differently.
Commonly, women talk more than men which makes language and communication matter
more to women than to men. In general, women are more verbally skilled than men.
Men’s goals in using language tend to be getting things done, whereas women’s tend to be
about making connections to other people. Men commonly talk more about things and
facts, meanwhile women talk more about people, relationships and feelings, probably this
is why the theory saying men’s language has higher status than women’s appears. Men’s
way of using language is competitive, reflecting their general interest in acquiring and
maintaining status, meanwhile women’s use of language is cooperative, reflecting their
preference for equality and harmony.
2. In Tanjungbalai, whatever your race and ethnic are, you must be able to talk in Malay with
Tanjungbalai dialect. In public space, everyone speaks Malay with Tanjungbalai dialect,
although some family would like to talk in their language choice, for example Bataknese
family will speak Bataknese in their home, but they will talk in Malay outside their home.
And we can also find some families who talk in Indonesian in their home. This causes
code-mixing in my hometown.
Some examples for code-mixing happening in Tanjungbalai: saying “wait for a while”
which translated into “tunggu sakojap, yo”, asking “what time is it now?” will be
translated into “Jam barapo ini?” and many more.
Once I learnt speaking Hokkien, I also experienced code-mixing when speaking. For
example asking “who says?” will be translated into “hamang yang kong?” (hamang
means siapa, kong means bilang), asking “who sees?” which is translated into “hamang
yang khua?” (khua means melihat), saying “memang nggak ada kerjaan” will be
translated into “memang bo kang co”, asking “gara-gara apa?” which is translated into
“gara-gara hamik a?”, and many more.
3. Examples of language change in Indonesian: before EYD exists, the word was jang and
after EYD exists, it becomes yang. From moeloet becomes mulut, tjinta becomes cinta,
ra’jat becomes rakyat, and so on.
Language shift is kind of different with language change. Language shift is the process
whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended
period of time. I myself experienced language shift when I went to high school where the
majority of students and people live around the school are Chinese descendants who speak
Hokkien. Then, I really changed my dialect when speaking Indonesian, I somehow
sounded like a Chinese and that was not something I intentionally did, it took over a year
to change my dialect back to a “normal” Indonesian speaker. I would prefer using “hamik
lai?” instead of “ada apa?” and that was not my intention, it happened naturally. I
preferred using “comik?” instead of “kenapa?” That happened because my community
became the minority that time.
4. There are some words in Indonesian, if we translate them into English, they are actually
harmless, but if we say them in Indonesian, they are actually offensive. Some taboo
languages in Indonesian are bangke, bangsat, anjing, babi, monyet, and so on. Some taboo
languages also exist in Malay with Tanjungbalai dialect and they are kapalo kau, atok
kau/ayah kau/omak kau, tolur, and many more. Some taboo languages in Hokkien are
chaw cibai, lancau, kau cheng, and many more.
Bangke (in the term of taboo language) means damn or shit in English. Bangsat means
son-of-a-bitch or bastard. Anjing, babi, monyet, and some other animals actually are to
compare someone’s attitude to those animals. Kapalo kau literally means your head, but in
taboo language it means stupid or idiot. Atok/ayah/omak kau almost have similar meaning
with kapalo kau. Tolur literally means egg, but in the term of taboo language, it means
d*ck or saying men’s genital organ in offensive way. Chaw cibai means stingy p*ssy.
Lancau has similar meaning like tolur. Kau cheng (kau means dog, cheng means
descendants) or in Indonesian it will be like keturunan anjing, and it also has similar
meaning like mentioning animals’ names in Indonesian as curse words.
5. Language is always related to culture. In my hometown, all of us speak Malay with
Tanjungbalai dialect (ending o). This is happening because in the past there was a Malay
kingdom in Tanjungbalai placed in Lapangan Pasir Sultan Abdul Jalil. But the palace has
been destroyed and it has nothing left anymore. The existence of Malay kingdom makes us
using Malay.